The next Apple iPhone will have an enlarged 4-inch screen, according to well-placed anonymous sources.
The iPhone screen has measured 3.5-inches diagonally since the fruity tech titan's co-founder Steve Jobs brought out the first Jesus mobe in 2007. But Apple is now scaling up the size of its pocket fondleslab, moles told …

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I guess if the iPhone5 only comes with a 5" screen - rather than there being multiple versions with different size screens - then this is just an evolution of the design rather than an expansion of the range, and Mr jobs' vision still holds relatively true.

How?

How does St. Jobs vision hold true? If it was really evolution why didn't it evolve a couple years ago? Not to mention this is the same person who also said that a smaller screen would make users have to file their fingers down to use it. Sorry but I just dont see how his "vision" can be all that great if Apple are only now getting around to it. I've been rather happy with my EVO for a while now.

Re: How? (@James)

I think the AC was referring to Jobs' vision of simple, stratified product lines. Sure, they keep the older models around, but I think the point is that the initial presentation is straightforward, there are no mystifying tables of tick boxes for people to traverse in PC World, Carphone Warehouse or wherever and the thing itself can become a desirable object in the group consciousness of consumers without caveats.

That's a policy he implemented almost immediately upon his return to Apple, starting with the Mac, and is probably a large part of what saved the company. I think they'll stick to it. If the iPhone gets larger, I'd expect the iPod Touch to get larger too and for no current generation smaller variants to remain available. No doubt they'll brand it a transition and cite the moves to PowerPC, to OS X and to Intel as evidence that they're not diluting, just advancing. Apply your own pinch of salt.

Obviously there are a bunch of ways that an iPhone screen size change and an iPad Mini would directly contradict previous Jobs keynotes. He used to do that himself, but the observation is nevertheless valid.

@AC 17:22

Ok so your saying little men appear to like big cars? And you can judge my size by my post? I wouldnt say I'm little I just chose Androids platform over Apple for several different reasons, the top two of which are I am not fond of being one of the cool people based off what device (or clothes I wear, car I drive, movies I like etc etc) I am using and two I have an intense hatred for how closed Apple is.

Re: @AC 17:22

"Fanbois are already frothing after news that a mini iPad is in the works."

Most of the frothing over Apple rumours around here seems to be from El Reg hacks. It might be mildly interesting if these rumours were attributable but when they're merely assigned to "well-placed anonymous sources" (whatever that means) it doesn't even register on the lower ends of my interest scale.

I have a feeling every change Apple makes to any product for about the next... say five years maybe, some useless hack will spout up 'they can do this now Steve Jobs is dead, because he vetoed it when he was alive'.

5" iPhone - only possible now Steve is dead

7" iPad - only possible now Steve is dead

'close' button a slightly different shade of red - only possible now Steve is dead

Used to love my iphone

But switched to the SG2 when it hit the streets... I think Apple are missing the point here, people like the bigger screens. Moving to a 4" screen is still playing catch up, if it had a 4.2 or 4.5, I'd probably have moved back..

Re: Used to love my iphone

Make the screen too small and it becomes fiddly. Make it too big and it doesn't fit in your pocket. I think 3.5" is too small. I have a 3.5" display and it can be very fiddly at times especially some games which require a precision which touch on the phone cannot support. The sweet spot has to be between 4.0" and 4.5" but other factors like the size of the bezel also need to be addressed.

Re: Used to love my iphone - Heroin works that way. One has to upgrade daily.

...to more and bigger amounts.

About 18 months ago, a colleague here in my office won a brand-new-in-box 16GB iPhone 3G-S as a door prize at a seminar he was attending. He showed so little interest in it that it took a week of asking him to bring it in so I could have a play with it (being in IT, one's expected to know about such things).

After a coupe of weeks or so of familiarizing myself with it, I put it back in its box where it has remained until this article prompted me to dig it out, now it's on my desk as I write.

It really worries me. Whilst no one here has yet succumbed to addiction to any brand of smartphone let alone this iPad--like the pharmacist who is always surrounded by tempting narcotics--the temptation is always there.

Whilst its owner will never be interested in it, the rest of us techies could be tempted, so we've entered into a pact--a unanimous agreement of monitoring each other: if any one of us gets too interested in the device then the others have agreed to grab it at the first opportunity and run over it with one of the warehouse forklifts!

You think I'm bullshitting? Well I'm not. Shame El Reg doesn't allow images to be uploaded or I'd post a few photos of me putting it back in its pristine black box with pretty icons on top.

Laudanum was one legal, and that the beginning of the 20th C. so was cocaine, it was even in Coca Cola--and it took a few years for everyone to realise how truly addictive the stuff was. Same with smartphones, problem is that even the regulators are addicted, so we can't expect the problem to be fixed anytime soon. We've people texting whilst driving, texting whilst crossing over busy highways and getting killed--then there was the bloke who fell down a manhole last week. The world's gone mad with smartphone phone addiction--futzing and time wasted has easily doubled, and that's the least of it.

Smartphones are the greatest marketing coop of all time, they leave Bill Gates at his peak for dead. There's never been another product in history that's as addictive and as corrupting as this 'electronic heroin', not only is it so seductive that most of its users haven't a glue that they're hopelessly addicted but to top it off it's totally legal worldwide.

Re: I hope it's no more than 4 inches

Re: I hope it's no more than 4 inches

Depends on your hands, my 4" Galaxy is fine, but a but small for my hands really...

I am looking forward to the SGS3 4.8" screen, that will fit my hands much better...

Yes for a girl the iPhone is a great size, I always said the iPhone is a perfect girls phone but for a man with man sized hands, a 4" screen is the smallest that is really practical for a touch screen device, and bigger is better...

Re: I hope it's no more than 4 inches

We all have different preferences, and would choose different compromises between screen size and ease of keeping it in a pocket. Heck, we have different tastes in trousers, have different size pockets and and differently sized hands. (mine is for a cheap 3.2" screened mobile that slips in pocket, but can give me basic internet if I really need it... my opinion is amenable to change, however)

Curious, though: If 4:3 (16:12) is your ideal ratio, why then do you prefer 16:9 over 16:10? It isn't Friday yet! ; D

Catblock(*)

Gotta admit

I was thinking I might have to go to Apple if they were the only people doing 3.x" devices. I love my Desire S' 3.7" screen. It just fits nicely. I don't need any bigger as I don't really watch much video on it. I just can't get used to the size of phone like the GNex.

Re: Gotta admit

Re: Gotta admit

I'm using a Desire S myself. And had a Desire before it. I do like the screen size, but sometimes want something a bit bigger.

The One X though - i loved the idea of it at first but then i checked one out in a shop and its just too big and cumbersome... and i'm fairly tall and well proportioned so havent got the smallest of hands. That said, i could get used to it and then probably wouldnt be able to consider anything much smaller.

Still... I'm having whatever the next iPhone is. I've not had one myself yet and i figure i should at least try one for a year and see how i cope. They hold their value well so can always trade it in if i miss the options you get in Android too much... or if Siri gets on my nerves.

Big screens

Watching Vampire Diaries last week, couldn't help but laugh at the lass who plays the main character holding a (was it a Note?) up to her head during a phone call. Never has there been a more silly phone since the Nokia N-Gage.

Re: Big screens

For the Galaxy Note, Samsung could make the stylus and Bluetooth headset one unit. If all these bloomin smart phones have HDMI output, then having the stylus/headset function as a media remote would also be handy.

(Waiting for someone to make a phone-connected watch that doesn't look too pants... if only because it would help me locate my phone more easily).

Re: Big screens

My brother (sa hi david!) has a note. I mentioned the idea that it might look silly to answer such a large phone and he sort of stared at me for a bit, like he didn't quite understand what I had said, then said something like "who gives a crap?" And I can see his point: if you buy a phone purely based on how you think it will affect other people's perceptions of you then perhaps you are not making the most rational of decisions to begin with.

Having said that, I am quite keen on getting the padfone just so I can answer calls with that stylus. I want to see how people react to me talking to a pen.